Totally Worth The 30-Year Wait.

Something incredible happened this weekend.

I don’t even feel like I can put a proper post together, partly because I only got five hours of sleep and partly because I still can’t believe it.

My sister and I saw Adam Ant live last night.

If you don’t know me well, you might think, “Oh, cool…I guess.”

It was beyond cool. Trust me. You may recall that Adam Ant was my Numero Uno back in the 80s. I wrote about my obsession here, in a post that even includes a picture of me dressed up as Adam Ant for Halloween 1983.

I never saw him in a live concert, though. Back then, wow, what I wouldn’t have given to see him live. I longingly watched his videos and the occasional live clip on MTV, just wishing.

Fast forward to this past Thursday. I found out that he was–HUH??–performing in Chicago. And it was sold out.

I didn’t even know he was touring in the States right now.

The idea that Adam Ant was coming to my city and I wasn’t going to be able to fulfill my dream of thirty years ago was a hard pill to swallow. But, life has a way of providing happy surprises. That’s where my sister comes in. She thought out of the box as usual and nabbed us tickets for his Wisconsin show.

We headed up to Milwaukee yesterday afternoon nice and early, so we could get in line and have a good shot at getting near the stage for the General Admission show. Before we’d find out if we were early enough, we had to wait outside for two hours. Luckily, the others who were there early were absolutely hysterical and we had a good time.

We were totally psyched when his tour bus pulled up. I even imagined that he was waving at us.

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And then I heard from Busy Dad, who I adore. Busy Dad walked right by me at BlogHer ’11 in San Diego as I was waving at him. It was like I didn’t even exist. I gave him a really hard time for not waving back at me for a while, but now we wave at each other all the time on Twitter. It’s our thing. I think he was worried that Adam Ant was going to unseat him as my favorite wave-r.

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And then one of our co-horts in line revealed her profession.

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When they finally opened the doors to get to the box office, we picked up our tickets at will-call and got back in line to wait for the ballroom doors to open. When they did? I still can’t believe it:

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purse on stage

The opening act, Brothers of Brazil, was really good. They were super-fun. I can’t say I wasn’t happy for them to finish their set though, because that meant one thing: Adam Ant would be on stage shortly.

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It was so worth the wait. I can’t even tell you how exciting it was not only to see him in concert but to be about eight feet away from him for the majority of it. We could practically see his pores. I stayed in a weird state of giddyness, disbelief, and total bliss for the entire show. It was a dream come true.

I tried to get a few pictures with my cell phone but my phone camera is slow and frankly, he didn’t stop moving very often. I ended up with one pretty good shot:

Adam Ant In Concert

And then? The unimaginable happened.

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And then? “Goody Two Shoes” happened. (Although this was from last night’s show, I did not take this video because as I already mentioned, we were touching the stage. We were literally LIT’RALLY in front of the guitar player on the right.)

That performance resulted in another favorite tweet.

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Yes, I totally know that I misspelled both “Courteney” and “Springsteen”. I was in a state of delirium at the time.

Anyway, Courteney Cox was famous for two things before she played Monica on “Friends”. One was her role as Alex P. Keaton’s girlfriend Lauren. The other was her appearance in a music video for a certain rock star from Jersey. In case you need a reminder of her work with The Boss, here you go:

We made the two-hour drive home and I fell into bed at 1 a.m.
I am still trying to process it all, really. The concert was awesome, and it was great to be able to share that experience with my sister. I will be walking on Cloud Nine for the foreseeable future. Good thing, because my feet are killing me.

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BONUS VIDEO!
It’s not from our show but basically the same. “Antmusic” and “Kings of the Wild Frontier” were our favorites last night. Check this out.

23 Comments

  • BusyDad

    Wow, I had no idea how much Adam Ant meant to you! I would have totally relinquished my best waver title for a night had I known. Only for one night though. Glad you had an amazing time. *back to reality wave*

    • Melisa

      This was one of those LIFE EXPERIENCES that will be near the top of my list forever. I am still in disbelief.

      *waving even though I’m too tired to wave*

  • Liz

    WOW!!! I know how much you LOVE Sir Adam Ant (probably not a knight IRL, who cares?!?) so happy for you and the night looked absolutely amazing, lit’rally!!!

  • Momo Fali

    You were trying to make Bruce Jewish, weren’t you? I know you. Also, you can lose the pole dancer’s business card. I have enough embarrassing head injuries.

    I am SO excited for you that you got to see Adam Ant! How super fun! I’ve been trying to think who would be my Adam Ant, but as usual…I got nothin’.

    • Melisa

      Yes, I probably was subconsciously. haha! Of course not: good excuse though.

      The thought of you injuring your HEAD of all things while trying to pole dance cracks me up. Not that I’m actually imagining you pole dancing. I’M NOT.

  • TheNextMartha

    So basically your life is complete. This was so awesome for you both to share in this great moment. And you can always touch the hand that touched the boot.

    • Melisa

      Totally. We had so much fun.
      And I’m not jealous of her touching the boot. I thought it was awesome. I was just thrilled to be practically in his personal space. 🙂

  • Grandma W

    I guess this is one thing off your bucket list. Julie has the gift for doing impossable thing for everyone. So glad you had a front row seat. Love you two.

    Love
    Grandma W

  • Trixie

    I love this story! I am telling my kids about Adam Ant all the time; they just don’t get it.
    I’m really jealous of you two and really surprised to learn he is still touring! I was reading as fast as I could to see what he would be wearing, thanks for the picture. Hysterical!

    • Melisa

      Thanks, Trixie! I have really enjoyed hearing from people this week who enjoy him and his music as much as I do. 🙂
      His new album (yes, he’s releasing it on vinyl too! haha) comes out right after Christmas, I think, and he said he’s doing another U.S. tour!

  • Christy

    I feel like I just read my own story of 30 years ago. So funny to hear there were other crazy Adam Ant fans out there like me, way back in the “olden days” of the 80’s like my kids would say. I am seeing Adam this Thursday in San Francisco and cannot even believe it’s happening. I had no idea he had planned a US tour back in February and had cancelled. I feel like I am so lucky that it cancelled, as I found out about the new concert tour only 2 weeks ago and just landed 2 tickets today, via Craigslist. I somehow by the grace of God got to be the lucky person who emailed fast enough and got the final tickets available. I told my husband, sorry, you are staying home with the kids, I am headed to San Fran on my own, it’s Adam for crying out loud!!! No one is stopping me. I would go alone if I had to….except my co-worker is coming with me…. I saw Adam back in ’83 when I was in HS and was Front Row at that show as I had my mom drop me off at like 2 pm for the General Admission. There was no way I wasn’t going to be right at that stage that night!! I waited in line for 8-9 hours..but as you know, well worth the wait. I have a hysterical story to go along with that show…i can share later. I am trying to figure out even to this day, how, back in ’83 I even found out about this concert???…..there was no internet or websites to let me know….racking my brain on how I ended up there that night!!

    • Melisa

      Christy, I think we would be very good friends. haha!
      I’m so excited for you: you’re going to have a blast on Thursday!

      I am still in a tizzy over it. Ask my friends!

      Loved your story. Email me the story about 1983: I’m dying to know what happened!

      Oh, also, just so you’re prepared, the merch table has t-shirts, guitar pics, programs, pictures, key chains…haha! 😉

      HAVE FUN!!

      • Christy

        So here it is….if I can remember!!! Sucks to be thinking it was so long ago….and here I am all giddy again like I was back then. So of course I was dressed like Adam – white frilly shirt, black pants….I had been dropped off at like 2pm by my mommy (thanks mom – hahaha) to go to this awesome show as I didn’t drive yet. I was in line for quite a while and then when it was later …..i had to go to the bathroom. I sneakily decided on the bathroom excuse. Some young dude was the line watcher guy…and he let me in, showed me where it was down this old hallway….so after I used the bathroom..i stood there in the stall….thinking..wait, this is my big chance….I can’t just go back in line ……for NOTHING. So…i scoped out the hallway and saw the double doors that led into the concert hall…… And, yep…sure enough…..you know what i did!!!!!…..I busted those doors open like a crazy high school girl looking for Adam Ant!!! The whole band was there…..not Adam though..he must have been back stage….but the whole rest of the band just stopped dead in their tracks staring at me…….Dead Silence…and me just staring them. I saw Marco Pirroni..pretty sure it was him..he was practicing his guitar…..and then I did the unimaginable..because of course, I wanted to see Adam…..”Where’s Adam? “, I screamed !!!!! By then the security had spotted me and kindly escorted me back to the front of the line, thank god….but I will never forget my fun attempt at trying to meet Adam….hey at least I saw his band and I have this great funny memory!! I even got a drumstick and the set of songs that was written on the stage….can’t find them..but I do remember going home with them. Ah, such fond fun memories of things I would never do now!! I saw him back in ’93/’94 again when he came to San Fran….the last time. Always so fun to see him in concert..so looking forward to this Thursday. And yes, I plan on getting some kind of t-shirt or something. What time did people start lining up…..was it hours and hours before?? I have to drive 2.5 hours…so I need to head in to the city early. I also wish I could have afforded the meet and greet – but it’s $300!! Kind of not something I can do…sort of expensive…..but so wish I could have…….Darn!!

        • Melisa

          I am familiar with that giddy feeling. 🙂 Thanks for sharing that story! Love that you saw the band doing their sound check!

          We lined up an hour before the box office opened, two hours before the ballroom doors opened. You might as well go for it: you could be in the front!!!

  • Michelle

    I’m so glad you were able to go. That’s just a fun treat beyond awesomeness for you. I love how excited you were, and I love that you were able to share it with your sister. And your tweets made me giggle. A lot 🙂

    So what’s left on that bucket list of yours?